1.3 What are the purposes of government?

Why bother with government? It’s bossy. It’s controlling. It’s expensive! Why not just get on with our business? Why be controlled by a cold, heartless social institution?

Reflecting back on the idea of no controls on anyone, we see a society in constant conflict. Even if everyone has absolute liberty, no one person can protect that liberty from infringement by some one more powerful. The result is a might makes right society. A society of bullies. That works out great for the bullies during the time they are the bullies. Not so great for the rest of the people who are getting kicked around.

Modern liberal representative government claims its purpose is to protect the maximum amount of personal liberty at the cost of surrendering the minimum amount of personal liberty to government. People see the protection of their liberty in two categories:

Physical protection
Protection of the social activity that benefits everyone

Physical protection

Oh yes! There are “bad guys” out there by the droves.

True, it’s not the 1920’s streets of Chicago. But Indianapolis’ murder rate climbs each year. The “bad guys” are there, just in a different form. People get gunned down in the neighborhood. In rural Indiana, whole families have been murdered in their home. This is the type of physical violence we expect government to keep to a minimum. When someone gets mugged in the parking lot at work, the victim, her/his family, and the community want the person who did it locked up. Not do people want their cars stolen, their pay checks swindled, the houses invaded and looted, or thei property damaged.

Here we’re talking about “first responders”, the police, fire fighters, and para medics that work to keep use safe and alive.

Public safety is a purpose of government

National defense

How about you look out the window and see this?

Above you see a Soviet tank from the Red Army. These tanks show up all across Czechoslovakia in 1968. The leader of the Soviet Union is displeased with the Czech government. In go Russia’s tanks. He kicks the Czech ruler out of government. The tanks stay for over a year to make sure the Czech people don’t support their ousted ruler. It’s an invasion!

People expect their government to protect them from foreign soldiers and sailors. They expect to be protected from the damage of war. Governments have military forces to protect their citizens from foreigners who might want to take everything away.

Military defense is a purpose of government.

Public services

How do I get to work? Car, bus, train. Each of these has to travel over something. Mainly, it’s roads. Acquiring the land and doing the construction of a road isn’t something companies have been willing to do. Private roads didn’t work out in colonial America. Government needed to provide this public service. The same is true for building airports, major airports like Indianapolis International Airport. Only government could build the airport.

Government also inspects your food. Business isn’t interested in finding a product is unsafe. It takes government — government inspectors/scientists.

In the U.S., government provides free 1-12 education. For many states, this public service is the largest piece of their state budget. For the current Indiana budget, education is 36.6% of what the state will spend. [https://ballotpedia.org/Indiana_state_budget_and_finances]. The budget is the pot of money the government has to spend in a year, or in Indiana over a Two-year period of time.

In countries around the world today, but not in the United States, health care is considered a public service. Canada, France, and other nations have a national medical system run by the government.

In the United States the government does try to prevent the spread of diseases. During the second half of the 1800s, the government screened everyone immigrating to the U.S. Most of Ellis Island is a huge hospital. It’s used to isolate persons with diseases. To stop them entering the U.S. Today, there’s the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta run by the US national government. Indiana has its own state Department of Health. These government public services are aimed only at preventing disease from spreading within the public.

Public services are provided by the government to provide a service it believed only government can afford or is willing to do.

Making economic decisions

Taxes are money collected to operate the government. They pay for the military. They pay to build and maintain roads. They pay to stop the spread of disease. They pay to run elections.

But government taxing and spending makes economic decisions. A tax abatement (period of paying low or no taxes) to a company that moves to Indiana give it a boost, an extra profit. When Indiana raises taxes on cigarettes, it intends to reduce the sale of cigarettes. During prohibition, the United States banned the manufacturer, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. No beer, wine, or spirits. No booze!

Tax policy and government spending is a the major ways government makes economic decisions. Building a new fighter jet for the Air Force or Navy means jobs in the aviation industry. Building a new Interstate Highway means jobs in construction. So does building new Army barracks or a new military base. It might be a new public housing project. Where government puts its money, your and my taxes, business go in order to make a profit.

Government can outright control economic resources.

Suppose there isn’t enough flue vaccine. The government might limit its rus to young children and those over 60-years of age. These are the most vulnerable people. Their need is scientifically greater. The government restricts the scarce vaccine for use with this group of people.

During WW I and WW II, the government rationed gasoline, rubber tires, nylon stocking, and food. Today, the government forbids the sale of certain computer chips, software, and nuclear materials to protect the nation’s defense. There is a long list of goods and services that can’t be sold/provided to Iran or North Korea. The government forbids the sale of body organs like human kidneys, livers, lungs, and hearts.

The government directly makes these economic decisions.

However, most often in the U.S. mixed market economy, the purchases in the marketplace make economic decisions.